From brucep@netscheme.co.uk Fri Sep 24 09:56:37 1999 Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 20:27 0000 From: brucep@netscheme.co.uk Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Badger to Worcester part er 2? The GIG was superb as no doubt other will tell. But the fun being over, t'was time to get on't with the task in hand - getting to Worcester with time in hand to set up the Festival web site before going live on Friday So we departed Stafford Boat Club a bit before 6:00am the morning aiming to get as far towards Stourport as possible. The Stiffs and Worst is not a canal I'm familiar with. Even my vehicular and perambulatroy (now there's a word to conjour with) excursions in this vicinity have been limited. The run to Gailey was very quiet. Not another boat on the move. The weather, after a couple of very light showers, settled down to be bright and sunny with enough breeze to take the edge out of the suns heat. In fact, perfect boating weather. >From Gailey onwards, we had boats ahead and boats behind all the way through Autherley, Aldersley etc. but a good steady pace was maintained by all so it didn't become tedious Suddenly we espied a familiar figure astride a bike on the towpath. 'Twas Keith the Karavanning Kanal Lover hose caravan is temporarily "moored" near the Bratch en-route from the GIG to the National He'd been seeking our whereabouts from The Bratch onwards (a shade optimistic I thought - we're quick but not *that* quick!). Keith proceeced to lock wheel for us all the way to the Bratch The S&W is a damn nice cut (so far anyway!) but The Bratch is without a doubt the highlight so far. It's special in umpteen differnet ways. At the bottom of The Bratch, we put Keith's bike on the cabin top and took him boating for a while. As evening was approaching rapidly. Keith left us at Hinksford lock to cycle back to the van. We headed on to Greenforge Lock, grabbing the last available space on the moorings above the lock. 26 miles and 27 locks had taken a shade over 13 houirs. Not an epic day by our standards but damn nice boating. A simple meal of corned beef and onon with bread and beans followed by a couple of pints in the Navigation (a historic pub comprehensively ruined inside) and an early night Tomorrow it's water up and Stourport Basin. About 8 hours so we'll set off at 7 and have time for some shopping and boat fettling before the run down Severn on Wednesday morning TTFN Bruce --- The UK Waterways Network - http://www.ukwaterways.net/ * bringing the inland waterways community together * You are currently subscribed to canals as: george@adiva.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-canals-407N@ukwaterways.net